The Man in the Mirror
by KatHarkness-Katara
Summary: Batman finds an interesting piece of furniture in Joker's possession. Minor crossover with Harry Potter. No slash, unless you're really, really looking for it.


**The Man in the Mirror**

Batman finished restraining the unconscious Joker in the inner room of his most recent ha-ha-hacienda, and stepped over to the mirror his foe had acquired. It stood in a corner, a white sheet covering it. Holding his breath in case there were hidden gas capsules, Batman peeled the sheet off.

The mirror had a golden frame, letters over the top spelling out a single sentence in reverse lettering. Before Batman could decipher the meaning, however, his attention was captured by the image in the glass.

It was not his reflection; not really. He was there, true, but not in the slightly dirty suit with the scrapes and tears acquired during the fight. This Batman was Bruce, and he was not alone. On his right was his mother, and on his left his father. And there was Dick and his parents, Jason and his stepmother, Babs and her father, Tim and Jack Drake (crippled, but truly loving his son), Stephanie and her mother, Cassandra and Damian, Alfred and Leslie, and on Bruce's arm, Selina.

Batman stared, enchanted by what he saw. He did not need to look round to see that it was a false image. But it was so alluring, seeing the family; those he'd lost and those he'd gained. Of course, there were omissions; Tim's and Damian's mothers, Jason's and Cassandra's birth parents, and Stephanie's father. Although it seemed death did not impact the group.

Batman let out a shuddering breath and looked away. He glanced up at the inscription and quickly interpreted it. 'I show not your face, but your heart's desire'.

How the mirror worked, Batman couldn't tell, but it was dangerously attractive. He could well imagine someone pining away in front of the mirror, caught by the desires shown. Even he was struggling to resist the urge to look back.

"Nightwing," he growled into his open comm. "Get in here."

"Coming, B," his eldest son replied quickly. A few moments later, the almost imperceptible footsteps announced Nightwing's arrival. "What 'cha found?" he asked.

"What do you see?" Batman asked, stepping away from the mirror.

"Us; why?" Nightwing frowned, taking Batman's place. "Oh, I see now. All of us, and our parents – well, most of them – and we're all so happy, and Jason doesn't have the white streak-"

"I missed that," Batman admitted. "It sounds like what I saw."

"'Our heart's desire'?" Nightwing quoted. "We must have the same desires. Where do you see us? 'Cause I see Haly's."

"The manor," Batman murmured.

"Guess you would," Nightwing sighed. "Cover it up, B, please."

Batman cast the sheet over the mirror, and Nightwing looked away at last, breathing deeply. Batman laid a hand on his shoulder, indicating his concern.

"Don't think I like that," Nightwing admitted. "It reminds me of Narcissus."

Batman grunted, remembering the legend of the youth who fell in love with his own reflection, and starved to death rather than look away. "If we take it, we can keep it hidden."

"Yeah, and it might actually be useful," Nightwing agreed. "Think about it. What does it mean if _that_ is what we desire?"

Batman frowned, mulling it over. "We want our family, the ones taken from us."

"We want what we lost, yes," Nightwing agreed, "but not at the expense of what we gained." He wrapped an arm around Batman possessively. "We can't have everything we saw, but we can have some of it."

Batman let his eldest child burrow into his arms, and smiled to himself, thoughts full of the family he'd made.

**Outtake**

Jason stared at the cave's new mirror. "Forget Narcissus, it's like seeing Catwoman in the shower," he snorted. "You know you're gonna be in trouble, but you just can't look away."

"Something you need to tell us?" Tim commented.

**AN: I'm afraid my updates are going to be late this week, so here's a little something that wrote itself to make up for it. This set in the Wayne's Boys verse, but is not canon for it.**

**Please feel free to tell me what you think, and as I said, the week's updates are coming. Probably Wednesday, Thursday at the latest, and probably back to the normal time next week. Sorry.**

**Katara**

**AN2: Surprising how many people are commenting more on the outtake than the actual story...**


End file.
